


Summer

by PrettyIdeal



Category: Voice of the Mountain
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-13
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-06-09 21:31:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15276594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrettyIdeal/pseuds/PrettyIdeal
Summary: When Tenzin vanishes without a word, Nenna immediately jumps to the worst possible conclusions. Because of course she does.





	Summer

Nenna hadn't asked Tenzin to visit her family's home, but every evening, he did. After his day of work and repair across the roofs of Mytri, he would stop by to share a cup of tea before heading home. He never said much. In fact, Nenna usually did most of the talking. She would tell him about her day, things she’d seen, or plans she had for the next few weeks.

Sometimes, he shared his concerns, but they were few and far between. He seemed content to spend time around her, regardless of the subjects of their conversations.

One day, several days after he began to stop for tea, her father invited Tenzin in to share dinner. It became expected that on the last day of the week, he would arrive, dressed in his nicer tunic with a small gift in hand. Usually it was something from the market that they could all share and the unspoken tradition continued through the winter, and then through the spring.

But last night, Tenzin hadn’t come. Nenna wasn’t one to skip a meal, but their family dinner had been unexpectedly quiet. She laid in bed with a full stomach and an empty heart, wondering if she might have offended him the afternoon before.

She’d been asking him questions about the way their homes were built. Maybe she had finally bored him to the point of no return. He had never seemed particularly irritated by her, but now she wasn’t so sure.

Her thoughts bounced around the subject all night, trying not to fidget too often and wake the others up with her constant shuffling.

Nenna watched the sky turn from a rich, dark blue to a hazy gray. From her bed, she could see most of the night sky, save a sliver of the moon blocked by the roof next door. It was festival day, and Nenna was now almost certain that she hadn’t slept. She might have dozed a bit, but there was no way to be sure.

She shook her head and sat up.

Tsengyi was still asleep across the room with his back turned towards her. She tried her best to leave as quietly as possible and shouldn’t have been so surprised when his low voice cut through the silence.

“Why are you awake?”

She was surprised, though, and she nearly jumped out of her own skin with a shriek.

“Shh! Why are you-” But he didn’t get the question out before their parents stumbled into the front room.

“Wha-?” Her father, still half asleep, was trying his best to scout out the danger.

“Nenna?!” Her mother, rubbing her eyes and leaning on the door frame.

Nenna pouted in Tsengyi’s direction. This was obviously his fault.

“He scared me!” Nenna pointed at Tsengyi, who was still lying down and facing the wall. He wasn’t turning around. That traitor.

Her parents sighed in unison and stared at her for a few seconds longer than they might have needed to.

“...Sorry,” she mumbled. “Go back to bed. I was...excited about the festival.”

When the heavy leather curtain fell back into place as an answer, Tsengyi turned and propped himself up on one elbow, grinning his stupid grin.

Nenna gave him the meanest look she could muster, but realized on her way out of the room that he probably couldn’t have seen it in the dark anyway.

It was already a bit too warm for comfort. The Summer Festival was welcoming the balmy weather a little late this year. The heat had been around for a week already, but Nenna had stubbornly decided to wait until the day of the Festival to wear the dress she had been working on all winter. It was elaborate and, while Tsengyi had fixed all of her mistakes with fine silk thread, she was proud of it.

The color of a sunrise, it hung about her shoulders in a carefree way and spilled onto the ground as a sea of fabric. It had taken her a while to find enough roots to dye it all. It was wasteful. She could have easily made two tunics out of it. She smiled as she put it on, giving it an experimental twirl.

Once the summer was over, she would give it to Nyima to do just that. All of those kids would look lovely in little orange shirts and vests...but for now, it was hers.

She slipped on her sandals and opened the door, expecting to be met with stillness and quiet. Instead, several of the villagers were moving just as she was; taking careful steps and completing tasks with as little noise as possible. They were trying to get as much done as they could before the little ones woke for the day.

Nenna made her way up to Sangye’s hill. Her favorite Kinfolk was nowhere to be found, but Eagle was perched in the branches, already awake.

“Do you see everything?” She asked Eagle.

The massive bird did nothing but stare off towards the valley.

“Probably. That was a silly question, wasn’t it?”

More staring.

“You know, I can’t be sure what you’re thinking if you don’t tell me.”

Eagle shifted slightly on the branch.

“Well, that makes two of us.” She sighed.

The light was peeking over the mountains now, lighting the village on fire - not literally, she laughed to herself - and wondered how she was supposed to enjoy the day with this strange weight in her heart.

When the sun had fully risen, Sangye’s call for Eagle caused the huge bird to leap into the air and coast along the hillside to meet the Kinfolk. They were dressed for rounds.

They nodded in Nenna’s direction but didn't wait for her to finish the trek down the hill. They were on duty. She was a little disappointed and wondered if they would like her dress.

Nenna took a deep breath and went to find her best friend instead. If anyone could salvage this day, it was Nyima.

\-----

Nyima was the best. As soon as the pink haired woman had escaped the chaos that was her family, she had spun Nenna around and giggled in delight.

“Look at what you've done!” Nyima exclaimed as she made her best friend twirl around in circles.

“It was so hard!” Nenna lamented. “Every night, the sewing, the cutting, the hours, I thought I might die from keeping it a secret!”  
  
“It's a good thing you did,” Nyima suddenly lowered her voice. “Pema would have definitely stolen your idea.”

“Well, you didn't.” Nenna smiled back. “You kept it because you're a good person.”

“And because that shade of orange would look terrible with my hair.” Nyima shot back.

“Your ears turn red when you lie,” Nenna reminded her.

“Oh, fine. But I look best in blues anyway and we both know it.”

Nenna smiled and grabbed Nyima's hand, leading them to the square. They had promised Sangye's mother that they would help her prepare for the festival. When everyone was out and about, there were bound to be more injuries than usual.

Well, Nyima had promised to help, but surely the village healer would expect Nenna to tag along. They were a packaged deal!

And almost instantly, she was proven wrong.

“Nenna, I know that you mean well, but I would rather get everything done right the first time. There is too much to do and not very much time to do it.” Their healer did not hold back, which was why she was so good at her job. “I need my best hands today. But if you'd like to be useful, you could take this-” she hoisted a large sack onto the table. “-to the Kinfolk. They'll need these supplies later and it'll save me a trip if you take it now.”

Nenna tried very hard not to be put out. She shouldered the heavy sack and nodded.

“Of course. I'll see you later?” She asked Nyima.

“Save me a dance!” Nyima’s reply came from under one of the tables, already busy.

Nenna sighed and left, regretting trying to follow her friend. This bag was definitely filed with rocks.

She set it down halfway and huffed. This day was not as exciting as she hoped it might be.

“Ahh...Nenna.” The oily voice came from behind her, but she didn't need to turn around to know who was bothering her.

‘Ugh...Lobsang.’

“Good morning. Did you need something?” She asked and hoped he didn't.

“Not anymore,” he sighed. “I was heading to the square, but got a bit distracted by the view.” He smirked.

“Don't be crass,” Nenna started.

“What? A man can't enjoy the colorful decorations?” He countered and gestured up to the cloth flags that were strung from house to house. But they both knew what he had really meant. One day, she would catch him in a lie he couldn't twist, and she would make him regret every slimy, disgusting thing he had ever said to-

“Fuck off, Knobsang.”

‘Oh, Sangye, blessed creature of honesty.’ Nenna didn't even try to hide her smile.

“What did you just call me?!” Lobsang huffed and turned to face the Kinfolk who had approached from behind him.

“Your name: ‘Lobsang.’ Have you gone deaf?” Sangye shot him a look of pure annoyance and stepped around him. “What's this?” They asked Nenna instead and pointed to the bag on the ground.

“I'm not sure. Your mother asked me to carry it to your hall but...it got heavy.”

“Yeah, a lot of things in this village can't seem to carry their own weight today.” Sangye turned to look back at Lobsang and hoisted the bag onto their shoulder without hesitation. “I'll help. Let's go.”

Nenna walked a little faster than she needed to, but getting away from Lobsang was a relief.

“I can't believe you used to have a crush on that piece of moss,” Sangye teased.

“That's an insult to moss.” Nenna frowned.

She probably didn't need to follow Sangye all the way to the hall, but this day hadn't quite gone according to plan.

Moments later, Sangye echoed her thoughts.

“You don't need to come. I've got it from here.”

Right. She was probably just slowing them down anyway.

“Of course, I'll see you at the festival! Have a good…” but Sangye had already gone ahead.

For a village full of people, Nenna was suddenly finding herself very alone.

It was time for a change of pace. If she couldn't enjoy the day with her… _’friends,’_ then she could at least help the others around her enjoy it instead.

And in the back of her mind, she tried not to think about whether or not Tenzin would fall under the category of ‘friend.’ She wanted him to be higher up on the list, maybe somewhere between ‘mom's freshly baked rolls’ and ‘all fruits.’

But she couldn't move him higher without his opinion on the matter. And then she couldn't stop remembering that he hadn't come for dinner to ask him in the first place. Not that she had been planning to ask such a question, but now he had robbed her of the chance and she was upset.

“Would you like to be more important to me than fried fish?” She asked the question under her breath to herself, trying to visualize how the conversation might have gone, but someone still managed to hear her talking to herself. She'd been alone, she'd thought.

“You can't ask someone such a bold question. They might answer honestly.”

Pema always managed to sound better than anyone she was talking to. Maybe some people took that as confidence - her brother sure had - but Nenna only saw it as petty.

Petty and a little rude. No, a lot rude. Of _course_ someone would want to be more important than the most delicious meal in the whole village.

"Anyway," Pema continued, tossing her long pink hair over her shoulder. "Why are you out here?"

"Well...I was trying to help with the preparations but..."

"-Ah. I _see_. Well, you're welcome to help me. I've been asked to put the final touches in the square."

And follow orders from Pema for hours? Nenna could suddenly name eighteen things that she needed to do.

"Oh, uhm. No..."

"No?" Nenna didn't think Pema's eyebrow could soar any higher, but she was wrong.

"I meant that I do need to get back. Lots to do! You know how it is. Everyone needs something!" Nenna turned on her heel and waved. If Tsengyi ended up marrying this woman, she would...

Nenna stopped. She had been about to say "she would fall off of the mountain." It had always been a joke. Sure, the mountains could be dangerous. And decades before, some had fallen. But it had always been a joke and they had survived. No one ever seriously fell off and died.

But Tsengyi had. Or...he had been dead for the better part of a day. And it wasn't a joke.

"Changed your mind already?" Pema called after her.

Nenna didn't answer. Instead, she bolted forward again, only this time she walked faster.

Life was short. And she was going to find out why Tenzin was avoiding her before anyone else fell off of the mountain.

With every step, she planned out what she would say to him. And she would ask how he could drop out of her life and expect her not to ask why. Didn't he realize how much she cared?

But as she got closer to his family's home, she thought a little harder. This was unlike him. What if he was sick? Or had slipped off of a roof and broken both of his legs? And both of his arms?! What if that's why the infirmary was preparing so many items?! He could be dying right now and she was missing it!

"TENZIN!" Nenna burst into his home without knocking. She didn't remember running to his family's home in her panic. The bar had been taken off for the day, but it wasn't Tenzin that she found behind the doors. She could see him so clearly, laid out and dying on his furs near the fire like she had imagined.

Instead, it was his mother in the front room, at first alarmed, and then trying to hide her amusement. If anyone was going to burst into her home - uninvited - while she was chopping roots, it would be Nenna.

"He's not here, darling." His mother didn't seem to be mourning the early and sudden passing of her son. "Are you alright?"

"Ah...yes? I..." Nenna sighed and sat down on the bench nearest the door. "I may have overreacted. I thought Tenzin might have...nevermind. Do you know where he is?"

His mother laughed and placed her knife down on the stone slab.

"He's around. I'm sure you'll run into him sooner or later. It's a busy day for everyone." She motioned to the meal she had been preparing.

"Right...I should...go?" Nenna realized quite suddenly that she had never actually been inside of Tenzin's home. And she hadn't been invited. And that she didn't actually know the woman's name. 'Tenzin's mom' didn't seem like the appropriate phrase to use to address her.

With a small smile that mirrored Tenzin's perfectly -or did his mirror hers? Of course it did, what was she thinking - she stood.

"You're worried."

"Well...yes?" Nenna tried to restrain herself. She really did. "It's just that he never doesn't do something that he always does! And yesterday, he didn't come to my home for dinner, and he didn't say anything the day before about not coming to dinner, so when he didn't come for dinner I thought that maybe he just forgot to say something, but that is just so unlike him that surely something terrible must have happened, and is he alright? Because what if he's been in a ravine all night! He could be dead right now and no one would know! Have you seen him? I maybe should have lead with that."

"Yes, that would have helped." She answered with a smile. "He is perfectly fine. He left not that long ago."

"So...no ravine." Nenna confirmed.

"No ravine."

"Okay. Alright. Good! Good. Well, I am going to go out and do some things! So, nice to see you, and good luck with the food? Yes. And-"

"-Nenna."

"Yes! Okay bye!"

Nenna took a huge breath as soon as she left the house. She looked at the sky, cloudy and blue and hot. She put her face in her hands and muffled a frustrated scream.

"I am an idiot!" She hissed to herself, feeling even more foolish. If that were even possible at this point. But what would have surely been a half-morning's rant that would explore and justify every reason why she was an idiot was cut off by the only voice that could do such a thing.

"I disagree."

Decades later, she would swear that her heart had actually melted into a puddle in that instant, and that every day since, she had just been living on the leftovers of how sweet that moment had been.

He sounded like Tenzin. The shadow he cast on the ground at her feet seemed like a shadow that Tenzin might make. He even smelled like Tenzin. But when Nenna turned around, it couldn't have been Tenzin.

Her Tenzin was quiet and reserved and sturdy and predictable and wonderful and funny and definitely would never have been wearing a tunic the exact shade of orange to match her dress and-

"Are...are you alright?" He looked worried.

That's when Nenna realized that she had been staring and not actually saying anything out loud.

"No! I mean, yes? Wait, no!" She remembered to breathe as an afterthought. "Where have you been?! I thought you were dead!"

He didn't say anything for a while, a slow smile creeping across his face. Could a smile creep? Or be confused? She only realized that he was watching her breathe - or, not breathe, it turned out - when he put a hand on her shoulder and told her to.

"I've been looking for you all morning," he said.

"You have?" She asked.

"Yes!" He laughed. "Everywhere I went, someone said, 'you've only just missed her'!"

She felt the blush before he saw it, but she knew there was no sense in trying to hide it. He noticed everything. All of the time. She'd be enchanted if it wasn't so annoying. And endearing. She was confused again.

"Well, was I supposed to...wait around?! You didn't come to dinner! Obviously, you were dead. It was the only explanation." She crossed her arms and turned away.

“I was _late_ to dinner. I was trying to finish my surprise for you, but when I stopped at your door, you were asleep.” He put a hand out and waited for her to take it.

“Really? I didn't sleep at all last night. I didn't hear you. I would have. I was waiting.” She glared at his hand for a moment before huffing and taking it anyway.

“I'm not certain that you'll want to know how I know you were sleeping.” He squeezed her hand and mock-whispered his confession so that no one else could hear. “I don't mind that you snore.”

“I do not!” She turned to face him, intending to be angry, but she gasped instead. His tunic wasn't just orange. It was the exact same shade as hers, with the exact same detailing down the sides.

He smiled and held his arms out, turning around dramatically for her benefit.

“But...how?!” Oh no. Nenna was going to cry. No! No, stop. Oh, goodness.

“Why are you crying?” He asked suddenly, pulling her into a hug before she could answer.

It wasn't fair. He was too perfect.

“You!” She says between sobs. “I thought you died! Or...worse! Or that you hated me! And instead you're too busy being a fortune teller and reading minds and how did you even do this?” She pulled away to inspect the stitching on his clothes.

Wait. She looked closer, peering at the detail before pulling the hem of her own dress and confirming that-

“This is my brother's work.” She didn't mean for it to be an accusation, and he just smiled in that way that told her he didn't really need to answer.

Things weren't adding up...until they did. The extra roots for the extra fabric that Nyima insisted she needed. Tsengyi shooing her away when he worked because she was ‘too noisy’, although that one probably had nothing to do with this secret project. Well, actually there wasn't too much of a mystery here after all. She'd just managed to not notice that everyone had been making an extra piece of clothing for several months now.

She leaned back and crossed her arms.

“Do you like it?” He asked.

“Of course I like it!” She snapped back angrily.  
  
He took a moment before prodding her again.

“Why are you upset?” He asked. If she had to guess by his tone of voice, he was probably trying to hide a confused smile.

“I couldn't…” She took a deep breath, which turned out to be an excellent idea because he still smelled absolutely perfect. “I couldn't even last a day without you. I thought you'd died. And realized that you being dead was the very last thing in the entire world that I wanted.”

He pulled her tighter into his arms as an answer.

“This would have been so much sweeter if I hadn't ruined it.” She finally mumbled against his chest.

“You could never ruin anything,” he reassured her. She felt the vibrations from his comforting voice all the way to her toes.

“It seems that I will never stop trying.” She answered, pulling away and feeling a not-so-small amount of shame.

“I'm ready for that.” And before she looked up, she thought that he might have meant it as a joke. Like he was agreeing that she would never not ruin all of his future surprises.

...But when she met his eyes, she realized what he had actually meant.

‘Oh.’

He was telling her with his eyes that he would be there for anything. Through anything. No matter what she said or did - or didn't do - that he would stand by her. Probably silently, but still supportive.

She couldn't breathe.

He took her hands in his own and closed the distance between them in one confident movement. He kissed her, and it spoke a hundred thousand words all at once. Everything that he had never spoken aloud was pouring over her as his arms held her firmly in place, strong and safe and hers.

She would never breathe again, she decided.

  
\---

The grass at the top of the hill was sweet and warm underneath her feet. Nenna didn't wait for Tenzin to ask if she wanted to sit. Instead, she fell into the soft clovers and stretched out. The winter would be long and hard, but for a few short weeks, she could savor her favorite season alongside her favorite person.

The sunset was probably beautiful. The sky was probably filled with gentle clouds glowing soft oranges and pinks. The smell of freshly bloomed flowers was probably sweet and the sounds of the night bugs slowly coming to life were probably soothing.

But all Nenna could focus on was Tenzin’s strong, warm hand intertwined with her own. It was a little sweaty, but she wasn't about to complain.

“They’ll be starting soon,” his words were a whisper against her shoulder, but she looked around their spot on the hillside anyway, worrying that her father might have somehow heard them.

"We can see it from here," she whispered back, but the suggestion fell flat as she knew it would. Tenzin was the honorable sort.

He could have said something clever. Instead, he stood and held out his hand to help her up.  
The grass was soft beneath her bare feet, but as she followed his careful steps back to the village, began to find the small pebbles less than accommodating.

She bumped into Tenzin's back when he stopped suddenly. She danced around to stand in front of him and saw that he was searching around in his satchel for something.  
"Hmm?" She asked without speaking.

Tenzin didn't answer with words. He rarely did. She smiled when he pulled her boots out of his bag.

“Where did you get those?” She asked, taking them and putting them on one foot at a time, leaning on him to keep her balance. She tried and failed not to blush when his hand slipped around her waist to keep her steady.

“Your brother stopped me on my way to the square. ‘She _would_ forget her own shoes,’” he mimicked Tsengyi nearly perfectly and she had to bite back another smile. “But I had a feeling you’d left them behind on purpose.”

“How else was I supposed to feel all of the grass?” She huffed.

“Exactly.” He agreed.

They continued towards the square, but his hand never left its place on her hip.

Nenna wanted to thank him for being so thoughtful. To tell him that she no longer dreaded it when the sun went down because it meant he would come for a visit. That she'd never enjoyed not talking before. And when she took a breath to say it, she couldn't. She hadn't expected the butterflies that had suddenly decided take up residence in her throat.

But he had heard her try to speak and stopped their walk with a gentle squeeze of his hand.

He was holding back a grin when she finally looked up at him.

“What?” She asked.

“Even when you aren't talking, you're as easy to read as the stars.” He was smirking now.

“Oh, yeah?” She bit her lip, deciding if she wanted to play his game. “What do you think I was thinking?”

“I can't tell you,” he answered. “You would blush, and then everyone would know how pretty I think you are.”

But she did blush...and she still didn't know what he was thinking! Or, she didn't know what he thought she was thinking? This was not a fair trade, she decided.

“You'll still come for dinner?” She asked.

“If you'll have me.” He answered.

They arrived to the square a bit late. Everything had already started, but Nenna could hardly pay attention. Tsengyi stood near Sangye and Nyima at the other side of the bonfire that had already started roaring to life.

Pema stood near one of the benches, and Nenna hoped she hadn't had any fun ordering people around all day. That's when Nenna realized that something was missing from the picture.

For once, her brother want hovering around Pema. He was whispering something to Nyima and Sangye before they all burst into laughter. Nenna smiled. Hopefully he had moved on from his childhood crush.

She certainly had. Nenna didn't bother to notice where Lobsang had ended up.

She only had eyes for the thoughtful, caring, wonderful man who drove her to madness...and the only one who could bring her back down to Mytri once she had spun headfirst into it.


End file.
